The Consequences of Power

All right you silly people, I told you, when this story is done the word "COMPLETE" will appear, in all caps, in the story description that you can see from the main story listing page. Comprende? Sorry this chapter took so long--went about a week there where I couldn't even get to the enterance page for this damnable site. If this lag keeps up I'm moving to some other site, cause it's getting old having to attempt to load a page 10 times on a good day.

And of course, as always, I can't type without reviews to fuel my fingers. I'm just bionic like that.

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Where was he?

Memories swirled around his consciousness; thoughts, colors, and images all coming together and parting again in a hectic manner. He drifted calmly, contemplating his inner turmoil without much interest. It was calm here. He must be unconscious. He didn’t really care what was going on, though. He couldn’t recall what had happened to cause this. But a scream suddenly burst through the plains of thought, capturing his attention. Another soul was with him in his mind, emitting a telepathic scream of pain.

“Why are you screaming?” he asked in the same telepathic manner, confused by the presence.

“My body! My body! I can’t find it! Where is it?” the screaming soul replied, the answer tinted with an edge of hysteria.

“Are you not in it?”

“I left it! There was so much pain! But now I’ve lost it! Where am I?”

“Are you in my body, then?” he asked the soul, realizing that must be where he was himself, hidden in his body.

“There’s pain here too! Not physical, but dark deep pain! Why so much pain? Where’s my body? Surely the pain there is over…”

“My pain is deep,” he said reflectively, seeing his body’s pain in all of the thoughts and memories around him. It saddened him, he decided, to see so much pain around him. No wonder the other soul had fled his own body, if it was in so much pain as well.

“Do you feel it now?” the other soul asked with concern.

“Always. Every moment of the day... except…”

“Except what?”

“Except when I’m with him…” he sent a mental image to the other soul, a picture he’d picked from his memories.

“Where is that person?”

“I don’t know… it’s too dark to see around my body…”

“Do you want me to stay with you while he’s gone?” the soul asked.

“Can you ease my pain?” he asked plaintively, missing more him more than ever now that he’d thought of him.

“Maybe a little…” he said, pushing close to the saddened soul and covering him in a wash of energy… when the energy faded away, the other soul pulsed brightly.

“You are him!”

“Am I?”

“Go back to your own body. Your soul belongs there, not here!”

“I can’t go back, there’s too much pain!”

“Can you show me the way?”

The souls moved across what he sensed was a long distance, but it only took a moment. The second they entered the other soul’s body they were assaulted by pain. Massive amounts of terrifying physical pain, taking over their senses. He suddenly remembered what had happened to the soul’s body and they fled together, back to the safety of the muted mental pain in his own.

“Stay with me until your body is healed.”

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“You were supposed to have learned control! You were supposed to have changed! I only lifted your sentence early because you had supposedly changed, and now you go and do THIS!”

Somebody was screaming angrily. Somebody needed to shut up and let him sleep. Hiei grumbled and rolled over irritably, unwilling to open his eyes yet. He felt like he’d been asleep forever.

“Don’t you try and fool me, Hiei! Yukina told me you would be awake today, and I know she’s right. Now get up and explain yourself!”

“Fuck your control,” Hiei mumbled, pulling the pillow over his head. Koenma should shut up and let him sleep. There was something he had to do now that he was awake, only he couldn’t remember what. It was vaguely important. He didn’t want to get up.

“I should have thrown you into prison! I should have locked you up and thrown away the key! I should have…”

“He’s learned control,” a voice said calmly. Hiei’s eyes popped open as the voice came from his own mouth, yet wasn’t his voice nor his thought. He suddenly remembered what he was supposed to be doing.

“What was that?” Koenma snapped irritably, coming closer to the bed. Hiei removed the pillow from his face.

“Where’s Kurama’s body?” Hiei demanded, fixing his eyes on Koenma.

“It’s not here. He hasn’t been responding! Botan can’t even find his soul to take. Is that some new side effect of that ludicrous attack of yours?”

“Where is it?” he asked again, feeling as though he was being rather patient.

“It’s in the Reikai where his soul can most easily locate him,” Koenma finally responded, looking confused. Hiei started to sit up, and groaned at the wave of weakness that overtook him. He wasn’t ready to run around yet, he’d probably just healed.

“Bring him to me,” he finally said, looking at the wall.

“What?”

“Bring him to me,” he repeated, his lips twisting sourly.

“Why?”

“Because I cannot reach him on my own!” he finally admitted through gritted teeth, hating to admit any weakness to the demigod.

“Isn’t it enough that you’ve destroyed his soul?” Koenma snapped, huffing at Hiei giving him orders. Hiei had finally had enough. He surged upwards into a sitting position, his eyes flashing and his wards smoking.

“I HAVE his soul, you damnably incompetent imbecile! Now bring me his body!” he roared, making Koenma jump. After taking one look at the smoke riding from his arm he decided it was, indeed, time to go collect Kurama.

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Hiei’s eyes snapped open as he heard a noise in the hallway. The door to his small room in Genkai’s shrine flew open as Koenma entered, followed by George and Botan, who were carrying Kurama’s prone form. Koenma, as usual, could not be bothered to help and instead was directing.

“Now be careful, George! Botan, don’t touch that part of his body again!” George tried to steer the body through the doorway and to the bed while Botan, rather than carrying her end of the weight, was examining Kurama’s privates. Hiei growled lowly until she jerked her hand back in fear. When they had settled the body down, Hiei struggled again into a sitting position. Botan looked at him with concern.

“Hiei? Are you sure you can get up?” she asked, only to be rewarded with a derisive scowl.

“Pshht.”

He pushed himself out of the bed, ignoring the vertigo that assailed him as walked over to the other bed, refusing to let himself stumble in front of so many people. He was strong again. There was no reason for him to be uncertain, for him to have hidden fears. He had Kurama… and now it was time to put Kurama backre hre he belonged. He reached for the soul hiding in his mind telepathically.

“It’s ok to come out now,” he told it, waiting for a reply as he stood near Kurama. The closeness would help.

“I don’t want to go back in that body!” the soul complained, not leaving. Hiei bent over to place a long, soft kiss on the unconscious redhead’s lips.

“It’s better, see?” he said to the soul, closing his eyes as the soul’s presence faded from his mind, as the lips below him responded suddenly. When they parted the green eyes fluttered open, looking up at him in quiet surprise.

“Hiei… I knew you’d fix it… the pain’s… no bao bad now,” he said slowly, weakly. Hiei smiled down at him tenderly, turned so that the others in the room could not see his smile.

“You shouldn’t have done that, fox,” he admonished him gently.

“I wasn’t going to lose you an hour after I got you,” he protested, grabbing Hiei’s hand and squeezing.

“Are you feeling better now?”

“My soul can stand to be in me now. Sore… all over. I take it back, Hiei. You and I should never have a match. I’m not touching the Dragon again,” he stretched slightly and winced at the soreness in his muscles. Hiei smirked as he returned the squeeze to Kurama’s hand.

“You had to shield me from my own attack. And you’re alive to joke about it… I stand ashamed… Thank you, Kurama.” They regarded each other warmly for a moment, nearly forgetting there were others in the room until Koenma opened his mouth.

“Kurama! Hiei! What do hav have to say about the loss of control Hiei exhibited?” he snapped irritably, wishing they’d wait until he was out of the room to love on each other. Kurama looked at him, eyebrows arched.

“That was a fine display of utter control. Hiei, while completely intoxicated, knocked all of our assailants into unconsciousness, and then brought the Dragon back to attack his own body to keep it from killing. I just happened to get in the way. The real loss of control was in the liquor. I swear I’m not drinking that much every again,” he added as an afterthought, looking at Hiei, recalling how very very drunk he was. Hiei looked at the sputtering demigod.

“What happened to those men?” he asked, a malevolent gaze in his eyes.

“The human police took them away. Evil woke up before all of you and called me to get you guys out while he waited on them,” Botan finally replied for him.

“Good! They’ll have fun in the human prison system,” Kurama announced, settling back into the pillows with a sigh of relief, weaker than he’d felt in a while. Everyone turned to look at him in concern.

“I’m going back to sleep.”

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One more chapto goo go! Bet y'all can't wait, huh? FINALLY! THE STORY WILL BE OOOOOOOOOVER. (Or will it?)